Fuchs sizes and lowering

Pasophisto · 03-24-2013, 02:35 PM

My '87 3.2 has 8" Fuchs rear and 7" Fuchs front. The car has spacers (about 3/4") all 'round. I don't know if the suspension has been lowered (centre of hub to fender is about 13.5").
I have access to a set of nice Fuchs that are 9" and 8". I don't know if making a change is worth it or not. Also, it looks as though the tire wallas are currently less than 1" inside the fenders so I don't know if the bigger wheels will fit with the spacers. Or maybe I need to take the spacers off?
To further complicate this, my tires are 225/50 rear and 205/55 front and the tires currently on the available other Fuchs are 225/50s all around.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Sheldon

mclmk8d · mclmk8d's Garage

My 87 3.2 came with the front fender lip rolled and folded in at the highest part of the wheel well. I have 225/50-16 RE-11s on 7s in the front, and 245/45-16s on 9s in the rear, and have no rubbing, no spacers. It is at Euro height.

Pasophisto · 03-24-2013, 04:17 PM

how tall is Euro height?

Porsche84 · Porsche84's Garage

I believe the 8" 911 wheel will not fit the front even if the lip is rolled. I put the 8" from the 944 turbo (85 I think) on the front of my 84 911 years ago. The 9" fit nicely on the rear

JQ911 · JQ911's Garage

I don't have rubbing issues running on 7.5 front (225/45) and 9.0 rear (245/40) on 17s lowered below euro height and fender lips are not rolled. I don't have experience putting 8X16 upfront but I think running 225s front and 245s rear on 16s is just about right.

PS. I would retain the 7s upfront and get 9s for your rear just like set-up of mclmk8d. That would look badass IMHO.

Pasophisto · 03-25-2013, 07:31 AM

can I run 9s with spacers on the rear?

Bill Verburg · Bill Verburg's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pasophisto

My '87 3.2 has 8" Fuchs rear and 7" Fuchs front. The car has spacers (about 3/4") all 'round. I don't know if the suspension has been lowered (centre of hub to fender is about 13.5").
I have access to a set of nice Fuchs that are 9" and 8". I don't know if making a change is worth it or not. Also, it looks as though the tire wallas are currently less than 1" inside the fenders so I don't know if the bigger wheels will fit with the spacers. Or maybe I need to take the spacers off?
To further complicate this, my tires are 225/50 rear and 205/55 front and the tires currently on the available other Fuchs are 225/50s all around.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Sheldon

There's something odd here.

oe a 3.2 Carrera would not have any spacers unless it was an M491 turbo look, in which case there would only be spacers in back only.

A 3.2 Carrera w/ oe Fuchs 7ET23.3 and 8ET10.6 would not need spacers, unless the car has 930 fenders

If you have a 3.2 Carrera w/ spacers and 7/8 wheels they must be some unknown ET.

So a little more info is needed

Is this a regular Carrera body or a wide turbo body? If it's a turbo body is it oe or did someone graft turbos flares on to a narrow body?

Are the wheels oe Fuchs or what?

Pasophisto · 03-25-2013, 04:23 PM

Yes, Bill, the spacers are aftermarket. Front and rear. The car is a stock narrow bodied '87 3.2 with OEM option 7s and 8s. I have the original window sticker. The spacers are maybe 18mm (guess) or a bit less than 3/4". I've not measured them. They were on the vehicle when I got it and it looks pretty good.
Sheldon

Bill Verburg · Bill Verburg's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pasophisto

Yes, Bill, the spacers are aftermarket. Front and rear. The car is a stock narrow bodied '87 3.2 with OEM option 7s and 8s. I have the original window sticker. The spacers are maybe 18mm (guess) or a bit less than 3/4". I've not measured them. They were on the vehicle when I got it and it looks pretty good.
Sheldon

If all of the above is true then the wheels would stick out from the well well. Since they apparently don't one or more of the statements is false.

I'll reiterate
1) 7ET23.3 front and 8ET10.6 rear are an oe factory fitment, they do not use spacers on a 911 Carrera 3.2 standard body car. If they did use 18mm spacers the wheel/tire assembly would be pushed well out of the wheel well

2) any wheel that uses 18mm spacers on a standard body Carrera3.2 must have ET around the following 7ET41 front and around 8ET30 in back if they are to fit reasonably well in the wheel wells.

How about a posting a picture of what you have? So we can see what you have and maybe help

Pasophisto · 03-25-2013, 04:50 PM

Hi again Bill:
I'm going to try to post some pics, though I've not done that before. In the meantime: Here's what I know for sure:
1. The window sticker for the car says Optional Fuchs wheels.
2. I measured the physical width of the wheels at the rim (not tire width) and came up with 8" rear and 7" front.
3. When I take the wheels off, front or rear, there are aluminum spacers that come off that are bolted to the hub and onto which the wheels bolt with alu lug nuts. I only estimated the width because I have not measured them. It may be that they're as small as 1/2". But that's from memory.
4. as for height of suspension, last night I measured aproximately 13.5' from centre of hub to fenders all around (tiny bit less in front than rear).
I'll go work on pics now.
Sheldon

Pasophisto · 03-25-2013, 05:08 PM

Pasophisto · 03-25-2013, 05:09 PM

Pasophisto · 03-25-2013, 05:13 PM

1st pic: front wheel left side
2nd pic: rear wheel left side
3rd pic: rear wheel side on
4th pic: view of rear left wheel from front vantage
5th pic: looking up at fender from camera against hub centre rear wheel left
6th pic: the whole shebang.

Pasophisto · 03-25-2013, 05:15 PM

I dont know if this is relevant or not, but an interesting thing is that the Fuchs are red on the inside...

plumb4u2 · plumb4u2's Garage

They are 6" front 7" rear

If you remove a wheel you should see the factory markings with the sizes and the Fuchs "Fox" if they are real

those wheels have been refinished as they were not polished from factory

Bill Verburg · Bill Verburg's Garage

They look like Fuchs or Fuchs clones

a 6" Fuchs will measure ~6.6" from lip to lip, a 7" Fuchs will measure ~7.6" lip to lip.

So if you measured ~7&8" best guess is that they are 6ET36 and 7ET23.3. These were the oe Fuchs fitments on many 3.2 Carreres. It is common for owners to add spacers to fill out the wheel wells w/ these instead of buying wider wheels.

The other way to do it is to ditch the spacers and then move the 7ET23.3 rear wheels to the front w/ 205/50 or 205/55 tires and buy 8ET10.6 or 9ET15 rear wheels w/ 225/50 or 245/45 tires

assuming that the spacers are 18mm the above 7 & 8 combo will bring the wheels out ~7.5mm more than where they are now, the front lip will probably want to be clearanced a bit